With the vacillating economies, most of us are faced with a similar confusion once we pass out our graduation and postgraduation. We are also faced with the same question when we are told for the millionth time that they do not have a suitable position for us in their company. What now? All those long sleepless days and nights you spent studying to complete your degree appear to be a waste of time and the disappointment just makes you wish you had settled to do a minimum wage job and not wasted so many years of your life. Well, hold on, I am going somewhere with all this complaining. Not many people tell you this or not many people find this career path naturally but Academic editing might just be the right choice of career for you. It is a profession that is comparatively recession-proof, because as long as researchers continue to research, they will need academic editors to edit research papers. You can basically put you specialization degree in any field to good use because the academic editing companies will value your expert knowledge and you will better understand what a researcher is trying to say through his or her research paper. Yes, I know the a normal job advertisement for an editor gives you a list of requirements, responsibilities, required knowledge, and preferred qualifications that might make the academic editing companies hiring you seem like Goliath, but if you have the skills to convince them that you are worth investing in, then they will. How do you know you have the skills? First, you have to be honest with yourself and grade your subject matter knowledge in your specialized field. If you find the application of knowledge into research difficult, then may be this isn’t for you. Second, how good are you at written English? Almost 65% people are better at spoken English than written English. Add on, the extremely dry and technical demands of academic writing or editing and you might as well look for another option. You need a laudable control on the reign of English grammar. Third and most importantly, are you good at picking out flaws and then correcting them? Like every Hollywood star needs hair and make-up artists to spruce them up until not a single hair is flying out its place, can you sit patiently and work on every line or every crease or every rough edge that you know makes your client (research paper) look a little less than perfection? Yet, be completely fine with the fact that none of the shutterbugs (journal reviewers) care about the hard work you put in, but only care about how beautiful your client looks at the event. If your answer to these questions is a yes, then may be academic editing is your career path.
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